For Wausau Pilot & Review
WAUSAU – The Wausau Woodchucks (37-32) took down the Madison Mallards (25-45) 2-1 on Friday night at Athletic Park, clinching their first Northwoods League playoff berth since 2014.
Mosinee native Jace Baumann (UW-Stout) led the Woodchucks into the pitcher’s duel with a strong seven innings of work, only allowing three hits and striking out four, with 55 of his 81 pitches being strikes. No hits would be allowed by either pitcher until the sixth inning.
The first Woodchucks hit would come in the bottom of the seventh inning on a single drilled off the bat of Tyler Cox (Eckerd), which was followed by an error resulting in two runners on base for the Chucks. Neither would cross the plate as the game headed into the eighth inning.
Wausau would load the bases in the bottom eighth inning for Cox. He put up his second hit of the game and drove in Drew Stengren (Central Michigan), with Jc Ng (Ponoma-Pitzer) scoring on the throw, putting the Chucks in the lead with a score of 2-1. The Mallards would put runners on the corners in the top of the ninth inning, but couldn’t bring them around to score, allowing the Chucks to take a monumental victory and clinch a spot in the playoffs.
The Woodchucks will finish their regular-season schedule at Madison on Saturday at 6:35 p.m. before heading into the postseason.
Wausau will host the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters in Game 1 of the Sub-Divisional playoff series on Sunday at 5:05 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at https://wausau-woodchucks.nwltickets.com/ or by calling 715-845-5055. Game 2 of the series will be Monday night at Witter Field in Wisconsin Rapids, with Game 3, if necessary, on Tuesday in Wisconsin Rapids.
